On the Road with a Good Manager

I typically don't write about work topics, but given the fact that we spend the largest part of our adult life at a place where we need to be but don't necessarily want to be, which is the source of our sustenance, which provides us with the means to go for things we want and in the process also takes the blame for being the limiting factor (while we know fully well that pure focus on want puts sustenance itself at risk), it does deserve a mention from time to time.

The good manager is not a lumbering truck in front of you on a one-lane road, forcing you to try passing at inopportune moments and risking head-on collision disaster scenarios; nor is he/she the Ferrari zooming past you on the highway, either leaving you feeling alone/unguided (and not knowing which, if any, exit to take) or inviting you to risk speeds that you never attempted before.

The good manager is the blind spot detector that warns you when there is a vehicle beside you and you don't see it, the lane detector that warns you when you start veering off your lane, the sleep detector that warns you when you start experiencing those momentary pass-outs, the highway emergency patrol that nudges you back on the road when you start spending too much time on the shoulder, the shoulder itself when needed, and the cop that sometimes pulls you over and gives you a speeding or aggressive driving ticket. If you are brash, still want to drive rash, your need for speed un'curb'ed and penchant for danger unabated, please feel free to crash and burn.